The primary interface to
ht://Dig is through a standard HTML form. When the form is
submitted,
ht://Dig will take values from the form and perform the actual
search. The search can be modified in many ways with either
hidden
input fields or other HTML form tags. Study the examples to get
a feel of what things are possible.
The HTML form is expected to contain at least an input text field
named "words". This is where the user will enter the
search words. Other values are also recognized but have appropriate
defaults in case they are not used. Required values are in red :
"words" : The words
the user enters for their search. This is what ht://Dig will look
for in the index databases.
"method" : This
can be one of "and", "or", or "boolean".
It determines what type of search will be performed. It is quite
useful to make this item a drop down menu so the user can select
the type of search at search time.
"config" : Specifies
the name of the configuration file ht://Dig uses to know what
site it is supposed to search and what resluts templates it should
use for output. Usually this is simply the top most URL of your
website and is almost always a hidden form value:
"exclude" : This
value is a pattern that all URLs of the search results cannot
match. Usually left blank, but can be used either in a pull-down
menu or hidden input field as a way of excluding portions of your
site from search results.
<input type=hidden name=exclude value="">
If you wanted to exclude all files in a directory called "notpublic",
or files that had the word "notpublic" in their name,
you would use this:
"restrict" : The
opposite of "exclude". This value is a pattern that
all URLs of the search results will have to match. This can be
used to restrict the search to a particular subtree or subsection
of your website. Usually left blank, but can be used either in
a pull-down menu or hidden input feild as a way of restricting
the search to portions of your site.
<input type=hidden name=restrict value="">
If you wanted to restrict the search to a subsection of your site
in a folder called "music", or files that had the word
"music" in their name, you would use this:
"format " : This
specifies the name of the template to display the search results
in. There is currently only one format template included called
"mac-find", but you can use up to two more templates
(called "short" and "long"). The format value
can be specified as either a hidden input field or a drop down
menu if you want your user to select from a variety of search
result output options.
If you wish to make one or two of the other format options available
you first need to make the other templates. Make a copies of "mac-find.html"
called "short.html" and/or "long.html". Modify
the templates using a text editor according to the instructions
found in "mac-find.html" then upload them into your
"search" directory. To make the other format options
you would use a pull-down list in your the search form:
"keywords" : Used to specify a list of required
words that have to be in the documents. This list of words is
added to the normal words value using logical "and"s.
An example use for this value is to make it a drop down menu with
a limited set of predetermined categories or keywords to restrict
the search. This can be very useful for very structured pages.
Note that the words may appear anywhere in the document. The scope
of these required words is not limited to words in META tags with
the "keywords" or "htdig-keywords" property,
despite what the parameter name may suggest.
"matchesperpage" : Specifies how many matches
will be displayed on each page of results. The default is 10.
Since this value has to be a number, it either needs to be set
using a hidden input field or a with a drop down menu.
<select name=matchesperpage>
<option value=10>10 per page
<option value=20>20 per page
